Customer knowledge management

Customer knowledge has received little attention in the knowledge management literature. The authors of this exploratory study argue that practices in marketing and customer relationship management have not been able to capture knowledge from customers that comes from social interactions with firm employees. The authors propose a three-step model by which companies can obtain this knowledge. The model's theoretical base comes from the information retrieval and socialization concepts of the knowledge management literature. The paper identifies cultural changes required to make this process successful.     

Dynamics of human resource and knowledge management

Recent transitions from the industrial to knowledge economy suggest an immediate and wholesale retraining scenario so that many organisations can remain at the cutting edge of technology. The dynamics of the job market is creating a challenge for many organisations in recruiting and retaining their core staff. In fact, many companies are in fear of losing critical business knowledge when their employees leave. In this paper, systems dynamics is employed to illustrate the relationship between recruitment, training, skills, and knowledge in a causal loop form. Strategies for human resource management are developed by conducting time-based dynamic analysis. We anticipate that systems dynamics modelling would help organisations to devise efficient human resource management strategies.     

Comparative readings of the nature of the mathematical knowledge under construction in the classroom

The present work reports on an attempt to empirically identify the epistemological status of mathematical knowledge interactively constituted in the classroom. To this purpose, three relevant theoretical constructs are employed in order to analyze two lessons provided by two secondary school teachers. The aim of these analyses was to enable a comparative reading of the nature of the mathematical knowledge under construction. The results show that each of these three perspectives allows access to specific features of this knowledge, which do not coincide. Moreover, when considered simultaneously, the three perspectives offer a rather informed view of the status of the knowledge at hand.     

Perspectives on operations research in data and knowledge management

A number of problems in the design and management of database systems and knowledge base systems (KBSs) can be addressed using techniques from operations research (OR). This article provides a perspective on these problems and the types of models that have been applied to them, and identifies some areas that pose interesting modeling and analysis questions for researchers working in areas such as mathematical programming, stochastic modeling, dynamic programming and simulation.     

Process-oriented knowledge management: a case study

Most knowledge repositories store documents organized by subject areas. In process-oriented knowledge management, each knowledge management project is developed around an organizational process and the mission, rationale and objectives of the process define the scope of the project. At the heart of the process-oriented knowledge management strategy is a knowledge management system called KMS. KMS has a workflow management subsystem that enables it to capture knowledge in context as it is created and present knowledge to the user at the right step of the process. Its repository contains not only knowledge created and manipulated in an organizational process, but also the knowledge of the process itself in the form of process designs, case histories and lessons learned from past experiences. This paper describes the process-oriented knowledge management strategy and its implementation in the real estate organization of a real-life global company.     

Mathematics university teachers' perception of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK)

Teaching mathematics in university levels is one of the most important fields of research in the area of mathematics education. Nevertheless, there is little information about teaching knowledge of mathematics university teachers. Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) provides a suitable framework to study knowledge of teachers. The purpose of this paper is to make explicit the perception of mathematics university teachers about PCK. For this purpose, a phenomenological study was done. Data resources included semi-structured interviews with 10 mathematics university teachers who were in different places of the mathematics university teaching experience spectrum. Data analysis indicated a model consisting of four cognitive themes which are mathematics syntactic knowledge, knowledge about mathematics curriculum planning, knowledge about students' mathematics learning and knowledge about creating an influential mathematics teaching–learning environment. Besides, it was found out that three contextual themes influenced on PCK for teaching mathematics in university levels which were the nature of mathematics subjects, university teachers' features and terms of learning environment.     

Operational knowledge management: identification of knowledge objects,operation methods,and goals and means for the support function

Though much has been written about knowledge management, this field has not been described extensively from an operational management perspective. Consequently, knowledge management seems difficult to implement at the operational levels of the organisations. To solve this problem, the abstract notion of knowledge is translated in operational knowledge objects. These objects are the input and output of two operation methods: (1) transformation or learning; and (2) knowledge logistics. The article describes several activities of these operation methods, and gives a classification of operational goals and means for the operations support function. The author concludes with mentioning challenges for the field of operational knowledge management.     

因子分析在确立人才理想知识、能力结构中的应用

本文提出基于因子分析 ,定性与定量相结合确立人才的理想知识、能力结构的系统综合方法 ,对于人才培养和院校教育具有重要意义。     

Codifying or enabling: the challenge of knowledge management systems

This paper examines the complex interaction between technology and people in the knowledge-making and knowledge-management activities of organisations. Studies in two Australian universities are used to demonstrate the importance of adopting a holistic approach to knowledge management, which is cultural, historical, contextual and dynamic. The paper presents various perceptions of what knowledge management is, or should be, with the suggestion that the cultural historical activity theory be used as the theoretical framework for both the study of knowledge management and the design of knowledge management systems, which enable organisational learning and adaptation.     

Proposing a systems vision of knowledge management in emergency care

This paper makes a case for taking a systems view of knowledge management within health-care provision, concentrating on the emergency care process in the UK National Health Service. It draws upon research in two case-study organizations (a hospital and an ambulance service). The case-study organizations appear to be approaching knowledge (and information) management in a somewhat fragmented way. They are trying to think more holistically, but (perhaps) because of the ways their organizations and their work are structured, they cannot ‘see’ the whole of the care process. The paper explores the complexity of knowledge management in emergency health care and draws the distinction for knowledge management between managing local and operational knowledge, and global and clinical knowledge.     

Epistemic management in mathematics classroom interactions: Student claims of not knowing or not understanding

An important role of classroom interaction is the processes involved in knowing or coming to know. Following a conversation analytical approach, this study investigates how students’ claims of not knowing, not remembering or not understanding are handled by mathematics teachers in whole class interactions. The study draws on video recordings of 42 mathematics lessons from 8 secondary schools in England. It is argued that claims of not knowing and claims of not remembering perform different social actions and are consequently treated differently by teachers. Claims of not knowing can challenge the assumption that knowledge can be taken-as-shared in a way that claims of not remembering do not. This contributes to the research field of mathematics classroom interaction as it nuances the epistemic management within these interactions and how this can contribute to the norms around the negotiation of meaning.     

Cannibalism and chaos in the classroom

Two simple discrete-time models of mutation-induced cannibalism are introduced and investigated, one linear and one nonlinear. Both form the basis for possible classroom activities and independent investigative study. A range of classroom exercises are provided, along with suggestions for further investigations.     

Granular fuzzy models: a study in knowledge management in fuzzy modeling

In system modeling, knowledge management comes vividly into the picture when dealing with a collection of individual models. These models being considered as sources of knowledge, are engaged in some collective pursuits of a collaborative development to establish modeling outcomes of global character. The result comes in the form of a so-called granular fuzzy model, which directly reflects upon and quantifies the diversity of the available sources of knowledge (local models) involved in knowledge management. In this study, several detailed algorithmic schemes are presented along with related computational aspects associated with Granular Computing. It is also shown how the construction of information granules completed through the use of the principle of justifiable granularity becomes advantageous in the realization of granular fuzzy models and a quantification of the quality (specificity) of the results of modeling. We focus on the design of granular fuzzy models considering that the locally available models are those fuzzy rule-based. It is shown that the model quantified in terms of two conflicting criteria, that is (a) a coverage criterion expressing to which extent the resulting information granules “cover” include data and (b) specificity criterion articulating how detailed (specific) the obtained information granules are. The overall quality of the granular model is also assessed by determining an area under curve (AUC) where the curve is formed in the coverage-specificity coordinates. Numeric results are discussed with intent of displaying the most essential features of the proposed methodology and algorithmic developments.     

Extending decision support systems: The integration of data,knowledge, and model management

The proliferation of desktop computing has once again rekindled the interest in making computerized tools available to managers and other decision makers. This paper elaborates on a model that integrates data, knowledge, and model management and shows how decision support systems (DSSs) can be extended to support managers in a truly novel way. The model, the Knowledge/Data Model (KDM), is explained and the significance of its applicability to the management of data, knowledge, and models is illustrated through several examples. KDM continues to evolve and is being applied to domains from computer chip design to production and inventory management systems.     

Knowledge structure,knowledge granulation and knowledge distance in a knowledge base

One of the strengths of rough set theory is the fact that an unknown target concept can be approximately characterized by existing knowledge structures in a knowledge base. Knowledge structures in knowledge bases have two categories: complete and incomplete. In this paper, through uniformly expressing these two kinds of knowledge structures, we first address four operators on a knowledge base, which are adequate for generating new knowledge structures through using known knowledge structures. Then, an axiom definition of knowledge granulation in knowledge bases is presented, under which some existing knowledge granulations become its special forms. Finally, we introduce the concept of a knowledge distance for calculating the difference between two knowledge structures in the same knowledge base. Noting that the knowledge distance satisfies the three properties of a distance space on all knowledge structures induced by a given universe. These results will be very helpful for knowledge discovery from knowledge bases and significant for establishing a framework of granular computing in knowledge bases.